Considerations on Sustainable Development

Concepts

• Goal of sustainability in a city as the reduction of the city’s use of natural resources and production of wastes while simultaneously improving its live-ability, so that it can better fit with in the capacities of local, regional, and global ecosystems.

• To gather an idea of what is to be sustained and how it is going to be developed to better the community around it.

• Knowing how it will affect the future envision of the community.
• Idea of survival at a time when this seems far from certain in either the human or the natural contexts.
• Idea of various kinds of betterment for humans at a time when complacency and consumption have overshadowed human connections to natural system.
• Corollary concept-BIOREGIONALISM:  all life is established and maintained on a community basis and all of these distinctive communities (bioregions) have mutually supporting life systems that are generally self-sustaining.

• The principles of inter-generational equity, which requires that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

• Knowing the limits of design, taking in to mind that the design must coincide with the needs of the people and to work with nature not try to control it.
• Insist on the right of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse, and sustainable condition.
• Recognize interdependence.  The elements of human design interact with and depend on the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every scale.  Expand design considerations to recognizing even distant effects
• Respect relationships between spirit and matter.  Consider all aspects of human settlement including community, dwelling, industry, and trade in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.

• Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems, and their right to co-exist.
• Create safe objects of long-term value.  Do not burden future generations with requirements for maintenance or vigilant administration of potential danger due to the careless creations of products, processes, or standards.

• Eliminate the concept of waste.  Evaluate and optimize the full life-cycle of products and processes, to approach the state of natural systems in which there is no waste.
• Rely on natural energy flows.  Human designs should, like the living world, derive their creative forces from perpetual solar income.  Incorporate this energy efficiently and safely for responsible use.

• Understand the limitations of design, No human creation lasts forever and design does not solve all problems.  Those who create and plan should practice humility in the face of nature.  Treat nature as a model and mentor, not an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.

• Seek constant improvements by sharing knowledge.  Encourage direct and open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers, and users to link long-term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility, and reestablish the integral relationship between natural processes and human activity.

Tasks

• Placing environmental and social sustainability at the core of practices and professional responsibilities
• Developing and continually improving practices, procedures, products, services, and standards for sustainable design.
• Educating the building industry, clients, and the general public about the importance of sustainable design.
• Working to change policies, regulations, and standards in government and business so that sustainable design will become the fully supported standard practice.
• Bring the existing built environment up to sustainable design standards.